A Shrunken 7

[Chris]

Whilst not 'super-rare', a reasonably unusual occurrence was the use of a Solo on a return journey on the 7. 

A problem with the vehicle on the inward journey seems to have led to it being swapped at the garage with 'whatever was there', which happened to be 2484. It was a case of 'blink and you've missed it', as the offending 'decker was fixed whilst the Solo faithfully trundled to Maidstone, and it was swapped back on the next journey. 

Seen here at Tonbridge Castle, in the presence of a long-term damaged lamppost, as light faded rapidly on 29th December. The timetable case on the very right of the picture is now empty, the contents having been moved into the bus shelters on one of the blue backing sheets mentioned in a recent Invicta. Unfortunately, the role of the new contractor does not appear to extend to changing/removing the vastly outdated route numbers on the bus stop flag. 

Chris

[Richard Ratcliffe]

Must have been a standing load by the time it got to Wateringbury and Barming!

I have been involved in pressing the local authorities serving us in Maidstone re a bus shelter and stop flag post on London Road which was destroyed a year or so ago by a joy rider at 3.00am on a Sunday morning.  Police having arranged for all the scrap metal to be removed it has taken nearly 12 months to get the whole thing replaced.  The nub of the story (coming to the point!) is that in Maidstone (at least) the "pole and flag" is the responsibility of KCC whilst the shelter comes under Maidstone Borough Council.  You can work out the rest yourselves but basically non-communication between the authorities resulted in the ridiculous delay.  I won't go on - I might get political!!

Ratty

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From: 'Chris' via Invicta Bus & Coach Newsgroup <mdekb...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: 12 February 2026 23:55
To: Invicta Bus & Coach Newsgroup <mdekb...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [Invicta] A Shrunken 7

 

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